2011
.]] 2011 (MMXI) was Gaia's Ninth year and its Eighth anniversary. The first half of the year consisted of many updates and enhancing old features, particularly the features mentioned in the Spring Cleaning schedule. The Red Devil MiniWing giveaway continued and then concluded in April with the March winners being announced. The staff worked to keep their word on being more open about upcoming features and changes, this being apparent with the Dev Notice thread. And being more timely with updates, events, storyline manga, announcements, and attempting to fulfill request based on threads seen in Site Feedback and Petitions forum. As well as scheduling meet ups, conventions and one-on-ones usually involving video streams. They also updated the cash offer page and came up with ways for non-US Gaians to purchase Gaia Cash. For gaming activity, Gaia teamed up with OMGPOP, a popular flash game site, and a feature called Dumpster Dive was released which works similar to Daily Chance in that Gaians can donate items to the dumpster for others to obtain. A new feature for the MMO, zOMG! was the Buddies, which are animated creatures that can be summoned by the player. When summoned, the buddy will follow the player around faithfully. Offsite Gaia continued their expansion on their Facebook application Monster Galaxy, a Gaia version of the popular franchise Pokemon, in May they promoted it in the Game category and made gold transfer to a Gaia account possible, although to play it still requires a Facebook account. In July extra security was added, IP verification on accounts; makes an account more secure. If an unknown IP attempts access, the user is mailed an alert. In September the new feature Gaia Item Alchemy was released, along with many components. An overhaul of the Marketplace "My Store" was within the same month. Then an announcement for Spring Cleaning returned, this time involving a new way of voting on proposals by using cookies. Nearing the end of the month the feature Bid Blast was released, a way for users to bid on rare items by buying tickets. In November there was a Housing update. In addition to running on more browsers, the interface was revamped making it much easier to access a home’s inventory and view furniture and decorations, including a new way to move items around. There are also some new animations and interactivity with some housing items, too: such as being able to turn on TVs and toasters, see candles flicker and more. Trivia * This year marks the Monthly Collectibles, Thank You Letters becoming letter scrolls instead of sealed envelopes. * A forum was open nearing the end of December of 2010, (see) Gaia Forum: New Year's Resolutions * In January the Evolving Item, Zodiacal, became the first to cost 1499. It also evolves monthly instead of weekly or by mini evolutions. * In February Gaians coined the term Quote Transmitted Disease to describe the action of an overlay image over their avatars. This came about when two Gaia developers were playing a prank on one another, it escalated to a point that even the community was soon involved. The overlay was soon used for the months followed involving holiday events. * As the year went on with new Evolving Items, Gaians noticed that Rapid Evolving Items were slowly replacing the regular types. With Rapid EIs gradually becoming popular among the community, there was talk of phasing out the way the regular EI's are released. * Gaia Facebook did not reach its 500K goal by July 31st, coming in short by 1K, however, it managed to get 3k over months after the deadline. * In September there was a release of new emotes. A few weeks after, Guilds Chat, was released (although the code for Guilds is still outdated). Nearing the end of the month, the number of outfit slots that can purchased has been increased to 20, available at 20K after the first 12 are bought. Milestones for Gaia Online 2011 *In January Gaia won The 4th Annual Mashable Award, nominated for Mashable award for Best User Experience. (see) Announcement. * On February 4th, the Salon Durem update had some issues, Avatars were not being properly saved with the new styles. It was looked into quickly by Devs and discovered that the storage space for hair and eyes had reached its limit. (See) Announcement (Thread): Update On Problem With Salon Durem * In March, Gaia created Charity Items for Japan Earthquake Relief, the money would go to the Red Cross. For each item purchased Gaia Staff would donate the amount spent: Emblem of Kannon resulted in one dollar, Coat of Kannon resulted in five dollars and the Halo of Kannon resulted in ten dollars. On the 14th, due to the items selling better than expected, Gaia decided to give 100% of all net proceeds to Charity. * March 18, an article reports that Gaia Online has donated $45,000 to the Red Cross. (See) Social Gaming Roundup: Japan, Spil Games, Disney, & More. In May there was a mini contest where Gaians were to guess the amount of money donated to the disastrous event, the true amount was revealed to be $55,194.48. (See) Announcement (Thread): How much are Gaians donating to the Japan Earthquake Relief?. On July 14 the Announcement: Thanks for helping support the Red Cross! - Informed Gaians that the Red Cross sent a thank you letter to the community. (See) Announcement (Thread): American Red Cross thanks Gaia Community! * May 27, Gaia created another Charity Item for nonprofit movement called the To Write Love on Her Arms, who are dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. By purchasing the Anthem of Hope, 10% percent of the proceeds from this item was donated to the organization. (See) Announcement: Cash Shop Update: Anthem of Hope * December 14, another charity item Revolution Dusk was released. (See) Announcement: Charity CI: Revolution Dusk External link * Featured Announcements: Timetravel (2011) * Community Announcements: Timetravel (2011) Featured Announcements 2011 Community Announcements 2011 Category:Years